tremble

tremble (ˈtrɛmb^əl)

—vb
1.	to vibrate with short slight movements; quiver
2.	to shake involuntarily, as with cold or fear; shiver
3.	to experience fear or anxiety

—n
4.	the act or an instance of trembling

[C14: from Old French trembler, from Medieval Latin tremulāre, from Latin tremulus quivering, from tremere to quake]

'trembling

—*adj*

'tremblingly

—*adv*

'trembly

—*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

tremble

c.1300, "shake from fear, cold, etc.," from O.Fr. trembler "tremble, fear" (11c.), from V.L. *tremulare (cf. It. tremolare, Sp. temblar), from L. tremulus "trembling, tremulous," from tremere "to tremble, shiver, quake," from PIE *trem- "to tremble" (cf. Gk. tremein "to shiver, tremble," Lith. trimu

"to chase away," O.C.S. treso "to shake," Goth. þramstei "grasshopper"). A native word for this was O.E. bifian. The noun is recorded from 1609.

Example sentences

Real or imagined, the fear of a chemical weapons drop that made easterners

tremble has receded.

Whole spans of the orchestral and choral music tremble with textural density.

Playing for himself, he makes the opposition tremble in its spikes and put

their sports psychologists on speed dial.

They shiver and tremble and act out to the awful imperatives of mental illness.

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abhor aspen dither shaky shudder teeter

Matching Quote

"Remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come, and the years draw near when you will say, "I have no pleasure in them"; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return with the rain; in the day when the guards of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the women who grind cease working because they are few, and those who look through the windows see dimly; when the doors on the street are shut, and the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low; when one is afraid of heights, and terrors are in the road; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along and desire fails; because all must go to their eternal home, and the mourners will go about the streets; before the silver cord is snapped, and the golden bowl is broken, and the pitcher is broken at the fountain, and the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it."

-unknown author

tremble

trem·ble